Adventures in Single Motherhood
by Eve-the-Charlotte
Summary: "Honestly, the once again Ginevra Molly Weasley never thought when she was younger that the drying of the ink on a pile of divorce papers could ever be so satisfying."  Ginny/Various Men, other pairings mentioned.  High T-low M.


_Adventures in Single Motherhood _by _Eve-the-Charlotte_

Pairings: Mostly Ginny/Various Men, with minor pairings in the background.

Disclaimer: I own nada.

I wrote this to be complimentary to _Winter Joy_, _Be a Man_, and _Dursleys' Demented_. This little story was based on the fact that I do like Ginny, just not with Harry. And, along with that, I don't feel like Ginny would really be the type to be happily married to one man for the rest of her natural life. Ginny, in my head-canon, is sort of the antithesis of Molly in certain aspects, and her view on marriage is one of them. So this piece was just how I think her life would have turned out if she hadn't ended up with Harry, more troublesome yet somehow satisfying in a way.

Honestly, the once again Ginevra Molly Weasley never thought when she was younger that the drying of the ink on a pile of divorce papers could ever be so satisfying. Then again, when she was younger, she assumed she'd be married to Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, but since when does life ever work out in a normal, sane fashion? Certainly not her life, at least. And to think it all started just after she had celebrated her fifteenth birthday.

Ah, that was a year, discovering that there was more to life and, more specifically, _man_kind than just Harry James Potter. Oh, those were the days…at least until Ernie Bloody Fucking Macmillan gave her a rather embarrassing sexually transmitted disease, resulting in indigo warts in uncomfortable places and a burning sensation whenever she had to relieve herself. And, _of course_, Madam Pomfrey would feel obligated to inform her parents _and_ her brothers. Needless to say, anyone within a rather large radius of the hospital wing was deaf for at least a week after her mum was done screeching about propriety and abstinence and _whatever happened to the sweet little girl who played with Wendy the Wonder Witch_! Ginny felt like informing her that that girl had grown up and decided that men were sexy and that she should have luxurious shags with them. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending upon your view of the situation, Ginny couldn't get in a word edgewise, especially once her mum _really_ began ranting.

After that, Ginny felt she should appease her mum by beginning to court Harry, but, after a _very_ awkward incident she was still quite keen that _no one_ know about, that plan was shot down in flames. Then the war started and, in April of 1998, Ginevra Weasley was knocked up by a son of a Death Eater, literally. Theodore Nott was lonely and offered to set Ginny free from her captivity after she had, um, given him _something_ in return. Well versed in the art of sexual intercourse, Ginny got the drift and shagged the sucker's _brains_ out. Ginny wasn't even bothered by the fact that he moaned out someone else's name (mostly because she thought Blaise was a girl at the time. Damn unisex names!). Then the final battle happened, her heart nearly stopped twice because she thought, in two separate instances, that Fred and Harry had died, and Harry, the Man-Who-Just-Kept-Right-On-Living, triumphed over the Dark Lord. After that, shit started to hit the fan.

First off, the Burrow was _literally_ destroyed, having been burnt to the ground by a bunch of Death-Eaters some time in March. Secondly, Fred, though escaping the battle with his life, was now crippled, unable to walk without the use of a cane, something that broke Ginny's heart when she heard the news. Also, Bill and Fleur were still together, which totally _sucked_ because Ginny had been so _sure_ that the stress of the war would have broken them up. They even had a kid together, damnit! Fourthly, the death of Tonks and Lupin had left their son, Teddy, an orphan, a situation that made Ginny cry, and when the redhead learned that the boy was to be raised by his strict grandmother, she cried even harder. Oh, and, finally, Ginny found out she was pregnant, and that _really_ put a damper on her plans post-war. _And_ her parents were pissed.

So that's when Ginny decided, once her child was born, she'd go off to Europe to finish her studies, _far away_ from her domineering mother, disapproving father, and nosy brothers and brothers' significant others. Then she found out she had twins, so Ginny rang up Theo and demanded, in no uncertain terms, a decent amount of monthly child support, which the man, God bless him (she picked up that fun turn-of-phrase from Harry and she likes it, so she will use it, thank you very much.), immediately agreed to. So, after thirty-six hours of labor (during which she made sure Theo upped the amount of child support), her lovely twin son and daughter were born at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Arthur Roderich (because that is a fierce middle name) and Aretha Ginevra Nott (since Theo was paying, the twins would have his surname). Ginny would have named Aretha "Molly" but her mum was still wearing her frown of disproval when her baby girl was born, so Aretha was named Aretha and that was that.

Then Ginny said good-bye to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, where Harry and Ron were letting her and Mum and Dad stay while the Burrow was being repaired, and hello Continental Europe! After essentially bumming off what Galleons her dad gave her for her trip, Ginny soon found herself without any gold and babies to feed, so she ended up at the gates of the Durmstrang Institute for Magical Studies, asking for sanctuary. Thankfully, the Headmaster of Durmstrang, Igor Karkaroff (who _had_ managed to survive those Death Eaters trying to murder him throughout the war), thought she was banging hot and let her stay with twins in tow at the Durmstrang Institute, with a position of teaching Transfiguration to a bunch of Eastern Europeans once Ginny had finished her schooling. Ginny didn't mind it, since her bed was warm, the salary was good, and, most importantly, her children were safe (Never accuse Ginny of being a bad mum, or she'll hex off certain bits that you rather like.).

After several years, during which life was very good for Ginevra Molly Weasley (she was well-fed, her kids were happy and healthy, her students weren't making her homicidal, Harry and Ron had gotten bonded and had a kid together, and Fred and Hermione had gotten hitched), life became not as good as she found herself staring at a pink pregnancy potion rather than a clear one. Then Igor made the mistake of proposing, to which Ginny poured wine over his head during the faculty dinner, since the bastard was smirking at her when he proposed, like she was a silly little _girl _who just _couldn't_ refuse _him_. Well, he turned out to be very _wrong_. After that total bloody disaster, Karkaroff found some completely inane charge to fire her with. After hexing the bastard in the bollocks, Ginny triumphantly boarded a train back to Calais and then onto a boat back to England, with the twins and her unborn child in tow.

And after another trip to St. Mungo's, where her pretty Yelena Hermione was born (she was still pissed at her mum), Ginny got herself a job at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry after spending two weeks sitting on her duff at the Burrow. Why not Hogwarts? She had taught for four years at Durmstrang and her kids would eventually be attending her alma mater, so she really had nothing to lose. After a brief interview with Minerva McGonagall, Ginny grinned in satisfaction as she got a job teaching Transfiguration at Hogwarts. And just a week after she started preparing for her classes in the middle of August, _Trouble_ walked into her life. And _Trouble_, with a capital T, went also by the name of Draco Malfoy. Oh, he was a slick one, oh yes he was. He made Ginny feel at first what she had forgotten she _could_ feel, passion and, dare she say it, _love_, love for someone other than her children and her family and her few friends (comprising of Neville, Luna, Hermione, and, to her own surprise as well as many others, Theo).

Then Ginny made the biggest mistake of her life thus far: when Draco ended a romantic dinner by going down on one knee and asking her to marry him, she had answered "yes, oh yes!" And then the gilded cage she hadn't realized was around her was suddenly apparent, and the door slammed shut behind her. Life as the fiancée of Draco Lucius Malfoy was not fun; she had to dress up and laugh and smile at the appropriate times and say the appropriate things. She loved her fiancé, but the entire affair was completely draining.

In the twinkle of an eye (another fun saying of Harry's that Ginny is currently appropriating), her wedding day was here, and every instinct screamed at her to run for her miserable life. But her parents had spent so much money for the blasted thing, and her children loved their new daddy, and Draco loved her, so she decided, against her better instincts, to stay. Oh, she remembered that day; it was perhaps the last happy day she could remember really having in her and Draco's relationship. Her bridesmaids were Fleur (only because Bill wouldn't be a groomsman if she didn't make her a bridesmaid), Hermione (who had given birth to twins only four months previous and still looked smashing), Luna (who spiced up the dress she had been given, making Mum and Fleur frown and Ginny smile), Lavender (George's new wife that Ginny adored, mostly because her mum hated her, so she couldn't be that horrible), Penelope (who Percy had married right after the war and was possibly the sweetest, kindest girl Ginny had ever met and therefore Percy so completely did not deserve), Daphne Greengrass (who Ginny liked quite a bit, as she wasn't exactly Miss Proper Pureblood Princess either), Daphne's sister Astoria (who Ginny thought was a bit stuck on herself, but loosened up after a few drinks, so not half-bad), Pavarti Patil (Ginny didn't remember _how_ she ended up in the wedding party, only that boy was she _fun_ during the bachelorette party), and, lastly, Ginny's maid-of-horror, er, honor, Pansy Parkinson, the bull dog, who Draco insisted upon having in the wedding party despite Ginny's obvious _contempt_ for the poor excuse of a woman.

The groomsmen were, of course, all her seven brothers (Ginny considered Harry to be her brother in all but blood, even after the Incident-That-Shall-Not-Be-Talked-About _and_ marrying her irritating yet at times genius blood brother, Ron), Neville (who might as well be a Weasley, too, considering Mum loved and still loves the man, and he _does _go to all the Weasley gatherings), and Theo as the best man, despite the awkwardness around her family since he _did_ father her twin son and daughter and Draco's outright _hatred_ of the man, especially since he insisted in bringing along his fiancé Blaise Zabini and their kid.

Even with those hiccups, the setting was good, the food was great, and the music was excellent. Despite the feeling of gilded bars encircling her as she and Draco had their first dance as a married couple and the nausea she felt as her husband fed her a slice of wedding cake, Ginny had a good time, chatting with her family, who she didn't see often enough, watching Artie, Aretha, and Lena play with their cousins and friend's children, and laughing at stiff-backed Percy's attempts to dance with Penny. Yet, moments like these never last long enough, as Draco and she had to leave. They Apparated to their new bedroom at Malfoy Manor, and they had sex to consummate their marriage. And as Ginny lay awake that night, with Draco snoring loudly at her side, all she could think was "Sweet Merlin, what have I done?" Not the best start to an until-death-do-us-part union by any stretch of the imagination.

Then three years flew by, during which she gained more nieces and nephews (including Teddy, who Ron and Harry adopted, much to Ginny's utter joy, since being raised by a strict grandmother must be murder, just look how Neville was when he first went to Hogwarts), another brother-in-law (and just when everyone thought Charlie would never settle down), and a son and a daughter by Draco Malfoy. Despite the fact that her husband just _had_ to name their son _Scorpius_, Ginny thought that her son was one of the cutest children she had ever seen. However, after little Jonquil Molly (Ginny finally made up with Mum) was born, shit hit the fan _again_. And to think it all started with a family vacation. You know, where you go out into the woods with your siblings, their spouses, and their kids, in addition to your mum and dad and your husband _and_ your five children. Yes, that kind of family vacation.

If Ginny had to look on the bright side of the whole trip, at least Bill and Phlegm got divorced, so that she'd _never_ have to see that bitch ever, _ever_ again. Also, she found out Charlie was going to be a daddy, which struck Ginny as a funny yet very cute notion, though, in hindsight, she probably shouldn't have laughed that loud or hard. Unfortunately, Ginny also found out that Draco, the lying, cheating _bastard_, slept with Pansy _Fucking_ Parkinson, that bulldog-faced _bitch_! After sending quite a few nasty hexes to both of them, including her infamous Bat-Bogey Hex, she promptly packed her bags and helped her children pack as well as soon as the family came back to Malfoy Manor. Then, after screeching at Draco some more (now Ginny knew why her mum shouted so much; it was cathartic!), Ginny and her five children promptly moved back into the Burrow with her mum and dad yet again. Funny, that seemed to be a reoccurring pattern: shag a man, get pregnant, put up with the father for a while, get pissed at the man, and then move back in with Mum and Dad with kids in tow. Well, her parents didn't seem to mind; in fact, they seemed to be pretty resigned to the fact.

As Ginny watched the ink dry, her attention switched over to her children in the living room, all five miraculously unconscious at once, thanks to Mum's special tea. Ginny observed Artie and Aretha, both with long, lanky limbs, thick, wavy auburn hair (Aretha's was more red than Artie's) and eyes, when opened, that were a particularly pretty hazel-blue, from their father's side. The twins slept curled up next to each other on the loveseat, looking like a couple of lost puppies. Pretty Lena occupied her granddad's chair, with her slim, petite body, tight, black curls shining softly in the noonday sun coming in from the window, and Ginny's brown eyes hidden beneath delicate lids and sooty eyelashes. On the large sofa, where everyone seemed to gravitate toward, lay her youngest boy and girl. Scorpius was the near spitting image of his father, with platinum blond hair, pointed features, and excellent posture even when asleep. Ah, but her young man had her eyes, same as Lena, and faint freckles splattered across his nose and cheeks, like a light mask under his eyes. The littlest, Jonquil, had her father's eyes, the ones that sometimes made Ginny want to die a little on the inside, but the girl's eyes were surrounded by freely freckled skin and soft, wine red hair, which evened out her looks considerably.

As Ginny gazed upon her brood, tears welled up in her eyes. She had never wanted children, really; she expected to have one or two, perhaps three, while married to one man. Now, though, she wouldn't trade Artie, Aretha, Lena, Scorpius, and Jon for any model family she had imagined as a child. Even if the "what if's" plagued her mind late at night, the thought of giving up her current life never crossed her mind. Ginny Weasley was a single mother and proud of it!

"Ginny, Merlin's beard, what do you mean you've divorced! Merlin, you're going to end up like Bill, moving in with a foreigner and going to South America and never seeing your parents again-"

Well, pride be damned for the moment, Ginny now just had to explain her perspective to the dragon lady, her mum, Molly Prewett Weasley!

Fin.


End file.
